Friday

Most of this week's content has been of the trip recap variety, which might beg the question of whether I have been doing anything at all this week. It turns out that I may have misplaced my marathon training momentum somewhere back in the Boundary Waters, and that's bad timing because 1) it got hotter this week and 2) it's my peak week of mileage for the plan. (Yeep.)

Therefore, I have been buckling down and digging deep and all of those weird cliches to get the miles in. It's no biggie and I'll get my spring in my step back soon - it's just one of those weeks where the gratification from this hobby comes not from jubilant super-speedy workouts or easy runs, but from working hard to keep goals on track.

I have been puttering around in the kitchen and trying some new recipes, including one very significant going-out-on-a-limb project. It involves a very large chunk of meat, percolating in the crockpot as we speak, which will hopefully morph into magnificent pulled pork tacos by dinnertime. (The vegetables are unrelated and from the Santa Fe Summer BBQ Pizza recipe courtesy - of course - of Iowa Girl Eats.)

The sunrises have been orange and beautiful this week. Today the clouds were pink:

This guy has been his usual charming self:

And finally, later on this morning's run, all of a sudden I literally got stopped in my tracks by a particular sight. Whoa.

The leaves, the colors, the sunlight?  That looks like fall to me. Like I said earlier this week - I'm loving the late afternoon warm sun, but bring on the leaf photos!

Another sign of fall: college football started last night, and my Tennessee Volunteers kick off their season tonight!  Rocky Top!

Happy Friday to you, Reader!